


Day 8 - Fire

by Chibifukurou



Category: Newsflesh Series - Mira Grant
Genre: Animal Death, Child Death, F/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:49:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29334081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibifukurou/pseuds/Chibifukurou
Summary: Michael and Stacy Mason keep living after they lose their son.But the people who keep living are different.Set between Coutdown and All the Pretty Little Horses
Relationships: Michael Mason/Stacy Mason
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: February Ficlet Challenge 2021: Apocalypse No





	Day 8 - Fire

Someone accidentally set their house on fire. It was only close to one other house, but they didn't have a fire brigade in the safe zone. 

Stacy took charge of the situation like she had taken charge of all the other logistics that kept their small enclave alive in the middle of a zombie plague. Michael would be lost without her. Their whole community would. 

She arranged for a bucket brigade and a pump schedule. And even for people to dig fire breaks.

They keep the fire contained enough that it doesn't reach the wall that they built around their safe zone. 

Michael doesn't want to think about what would have happened if the wall had burned.

Space was tight, survivors had been trickling in over the span of the summer. They are losing fewer people now that they are learning the rules. He had thought it smart to keep the extra housing available even if Stacy protested the idea loudly and often.

She insisted that they needed to destroy the houses that were closest to the wall. For the good of the community. She had always been better at being realistic than him.

His mind went to Philip. Buried in the garden he had helped his mother plant and tend with all the joy of a toddler who loved any excuse to get muddy. 

If only they had known the damn virus could jump to the animals.

Michael hadn't been there when he had amplified. Didn't have to remember the way his son had become a living corpse ready to tear his mother apart. He hadn't had to watch Stacy shoot him.

If it had been him, he didn't think he would have been able to shoot Philip before he was infected himself. 

He helped dig the hole, to prepare Philip's body, wrapping it carefully in plastic and given all the ceremony they could muster only a handful of weeks into the apocalypse.

He'd been there to see Stacy shattered, broken beyond anything he knew how to fix. Then he'd watched as she'd pulled herself together and went back to being the cornerstone of the community. 

Stacy had gathered all the people in the community together the day after the buried Philip. Announced that all dogs, horses and other pets larger than the feral cats would be taken out of the community and shot. 

His love had redoubled, burned its way straight through him. 

It had been pandemonium. People had refused, said loss was making her unreasonable. 

They lost three more people to animal related infections. Then people had taken the animals out. Stacy had gone with them. 

Michael had not. Every time he heard the shots he'd flinched. Wanted to run out there and stop them. When he couldn't bring himself to announce their solution to his listening public, Stacy got on the radio and did it herself. 

The only time she'd ever spoken live.

People said the loss of a child could break a couple apart. It wouldn't be that way for them. He would make sure of it. Who would he even be if he didn't have her to hold him up?

He kept waiting for her to blame him. Get angry that he couldn't hold her up in turn. He had never been willing to do the necessary thing over the smart thing. 

It never happen. She just kept her eyes forward and expected him to keep following in her wake. She never pushed him away but she didn't turn around to make sure he was still with her. 

He chose to view her behavior as trust. If that answer felt hollow, he dismissed the pain as more signs of his love. 

They were going to make it through this. No matter what it cost.

Two days after the fire, Stacy asked for volunteers to help with the demolition of the houses near the wall. She gets a small group and they go out to start the project. 

Making that much noise right by the wall was dangerous. A second group would stay to guard them and make sure a horde didn't gather too close to where the people were working.

A third and forth group would make noises in other parts of the compound to keep the zombies distracted. 

Michael could have joined any of the groups. Shown some support for the community and his wife's project. 

Instead he stayed by the radio. He had hours before the next broadcast. But his makeshift recording studio was the only place he felt safe anymore.

Feeling safe was the only thing that allowed him to keep moving. His love of Stacy made him feel safer but sometimes in the dark of night he wasn't sure how to love what she was becoming. 

A woman who destroyed homes and put down animals. 

She was becoming kindling. Driving herself to the edge time and again to keep the light of humanity burning. Eventually she would catch fire.

And he would burn with her.


End file.
